


Bloodlines

by CosmicKat



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-16 11:56:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5827678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmicKat/pseuds/CosmicKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A newly-turned vampire, Pete must navigate his urges and how his new affliction changes his relationships. He reaches out to old bandmates and with the added help of an enigmatic vampire hunter Kara, the vampire seeks retribution for the wrongs of his sire. But nothing in life is ever simple, and the same seems to go for un-life. Originally known as Bleeding Streets, this work follows an alternate timeline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The air seemed still in the city of Chicago. As the sun set, giving the sky a harsh red glow, the streetlights blinked on. The area had a drowsy feeling like a child being laid down for a nap.

A shrill scream pierced the air, cutting through the silence.

Down on the street, a rowdy group of men pulled two people parallel to one another, one man and one woman, both struggling against their captors’ grips. The man kept his mouth screwed shut, bucking wildly and defiantly in the gang’s arms.

“Go on, newblood, kiss her,” a man with a mowhawk sneered, the apparent leader. He grabbed the other struggling man with a dirty hand and pulled his ear close to his mouth.“Taste the sweet blood rushing through those veins.”

The screaming woman was shoved toward the man, who groaned and began to pant. As he opened his mouth, the woman began to sob at the sight of his elongated canines. The gang laughed at this, revealing their own fangs, and edged the vampire closer to her.

He panted heavier and gazed at her under his jet black fringe, little droplets of blood appearing in his eyelashes. The leader howled, doubled over in laughter.

“The newblood is tearing up! Who knew Beckett liked little weaklings!”

The vampire snarled furiously and fastened his teeth onto the arm of one of the vampires restraining him. With a swift punch, he sent the other flying back into a nearby wall. The group quickly forgot what they were doing and moved in for the kill.

As more vampires surged on him, the woman tore away. She stepped back almost uncertainly, but managed to catch the newblood’s eye. A drop of blood rolled down his cheek, and she stifled another sob before running off into the darkness.

The newblood’s punches grew faster and sloppier during the gang’s continued attack. The group noticed this and piled on quicker, overwhelming the vampire. The leader cackled when the vampire cried out.

“Right, asshole,” a confident voice stopped everyone in their tracks, “because picking on a newbie is what strong vampires do.”

A girl leapt down from nearby roof and landed coolly on the pavement. Under the streetlights, her smooth mocha skin seemed to radiate light. As she stepped to the side as if sizing up the scene, the newblood noted her brazen blue eyes, which seemed to have a light all their own. But he also noticed something even more shocking.

Her scent.

A powerful wave of—something—rolled off of her, something that made the newblood’s mouth salivate. He, like all vampires, could sense blood moving within a human body, but a human’s scent was something else entirely. It was typically subtle, sometimes sweet, sometimes tinged with a strange sourness. But this girl smelled…warm, comforting almost. The newblood certainly didn’t have much experience with smelling humans, but even he could tell that this was Not Normal. He wasn’t the only one to notice, of course.

The leader raised a hand, keeping his gang back as he stalked toward the girl, locking eyes. His lips pulled into a grin whereas the girl kept a tight smile on her face. She took a step closer to him, though it looked more like a dreamy stumble.

“That’s right, baby,” the leader growled in his sharp tone, “let me give you a kiss.”

It was like he was charming her somehow, some tactic the newblood had never seen before. She continued toward the leader, tilting her head to the side as if exposing her neck. Although his arms were yet again held behind his back, the vampire struggled to get to her. The leader chuckled at the sound while the girl came to a stop before him.

Suddenly, she delivered a high kick to his temple, causing him to crumple to the ground in pain. She unsheathed a stake from a holster hidden around her back and aimed for his chest.

“That is by far the worst Coercion I’ve ever seen.”

The leader cried out as she drove the stake through him and pulled it out again sharply. His veins bulged and grayed, the strange effect spreading throughout his body as it appeared to shrivel up grotesquely. The girl threw the dried out husk to the ground and smirked devilishly at the astonished remaining vampires.

“I hope that wasn’t your best.”

With that, she hurled the stake at a perfect spiral, impaling another vampire near the newblood. As this one decayed similarly to the leader, the gang finally had the sense to continue the attack and they all moved toward her.

The newblood joined the fray, keeping a watchful eye on the girl. She was lithe and moved with uncanny agility, seeming to evade any attack both quickly and effortlessly. It was clear she had training of some sort and was leagues ahead of anyone else in the brawl.

It appeared the gang reached the same conclusion he did, and they dispersed swiftly, their numbers significantly thinned. The girl watched their retreat with a grin, allowing the newblood to get a better look at her.

Her silky black hair was plaited into twin braids that traveled to her shoulders, a look that, coupled with her small frame and build, made her look slightly childish. There was no denying that she was pretty, high cheekbones and long eyelashes. Her scent, to a vampire at least, would make her irresistible.  
But besides her youthful exuberance, the vampire noticed the way her skin stretched taut over her collarbone and her muscles flexed comfortably under the long-sleeved black shirt she was wearing. She bounced on the balls of her feet, as if coming off of a high. So not only was she well fit for her work, but she enjoyed it as well. The perfect vampire killer.

So the newblood felt reasonably surprised when she turned and extended a hand to him.

“I’m Kara.” He stared blankly at her hand, which she dropped with a slight grimace.

“Pete.”

Pete pivoted on his heel and began walking. Anywhere else was a preferable alternative to this girl and her baffling scent. But this hunter girl didn’t seem to get the message and fell into step next to him.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

He didn’t know. Breaking into yet another abandoned basement to stay during the day was an option, but this practice was not a sustainable one. A permanent shelter was definitely a logical step. Unfortunately, logic was something he’d been forced to abandon when he woke up a vampire.

Pete jolted awake on a bed with starch white sheets, trapped in a windowless room like a mental hospital. Unlike his previous stint in a psych ward, however, the area was still and silent, uncomfortably so. He tried to move, but noticed his hands and ankles were manacled to the steel bed frame. Everything preceding that revelation warranted suspicion, but now he knew something was not right.

He tugged at his manacles futilely, moaning lowly. As the sound passed his lips, he realized how parched his throat was. It was a raw feeling that only intensified as his breathing grew ragged, anxiety building up with each passing moment. He pulled at the chains for what felt like hours, screaming at the top of his lungs regardless of the pain in his throat.

Finally, the door across the room swung open and shut in a single fluid movement and a man entered. His straight toffee locks fell down to his shoulders, framing his classically beautiful face. He was tall and thin, reminding Pete of some horror character he couldn’t name. The man fingered the cuff of his expensive-looking jacket idly before turning toward Pete with a smile that revealed his teeth. His overlong canines. That was when Pete really screamed.

“Why’d you stop?”

Kara was standing a few steps ahead of Pete looking quizzical. Evidently, he’d stopped walking in the middle of his recollection. It made him think of something.

“How… How do you know about vampires?” The girl tilted her head curiously and walked back toward him. As she got closer, Pete instinctively raised a hand to his nose, which she noticed and smirked at.

“I’m a hunter,” she replied as if it were obvious. She’d finally stopped about a foot from Pete. “I’ve been one since I can remember.”

Pete had decided that yes, it was an obvious answer that accompanied a rather belated question. But this girl should have shoved a stake through him without a second thought, not made small talk about his living situation. She had skill, no doubt, but what kind of hunter was so selective?

“Can you teach me?”

Kara looked mildly surprised, like she was expecting this, but not this fast. Still, she even looked surprised by her response, delivered with that ever-present smirk.

“Sure, but it’ll take a while. And if you think we’re training in the middle of a street…”

Pete laughed shortly, noticing how the sensation felt in his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed. He supposed he’d been with…

Of course.

Conveniently, a payphone stood at a nearby intersection, and Pete strolled toward it. He searched his pockets for any change and turned in Kara’s direction to ask. The girl had disappeared. Huffing, he dialed the number anyway on collect.

His old bandmates (his current bandmates, really, but who knew what they were doing in the – fuck, how long was he gone?) had mentioned renting a huge warehouse together. They’d have more space for their instruments, it was cheaper than an actual apartment, and it was surprisingly spacious. And it was a “rad party space” as Joe put it.

But Pete had presumably been AWOL for some time, and did he really want to bring his friends into this? They had no reason to respond to such a ridiculous story with anything but a suggestion he revisit the hospital for extra meds. Maybe this was a stupid—

“—you have received a collect call from—”

“Pete Wentz.” He finished for the automated voice quickly, then cursed himself. Did he really expect Patrick to pick up?

The call was accepted within a second with a breathless, “Pete, is that really you?”

Pete nearly gasped. He never thought he’d actually hear his best friend’s voice again. Stifling a sob, Pete replied.

“Yeah, Trick, it’s me. Listen, I—I got into something bad. Something really fucked up happened to me. I,” Pete couldn’t repress a choked cry, “need you guys.”

“W-What is it? Where are you?”

Pete sort of wished Patrick weren’t so willing to accept this kind of shock so easily, but he was simultaneously grateful. At least, he was feeling lucky until the next words passed his lips unconsciously.

“I’m a vampire, Trick. Fuck, some vampire kingpin or something kidnapped me and turned me into a fucking vampire. Dude, I’m terrified.”

Pause.

“Okay, where are you?”

Pete wanted to reach through the receiver and kiss Patrick. He also wanted to throttle the kid for taking such a fantastic story, but he knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Still, he let out a disbelieving laugh, laughing harder when Patrick returned it self-consciously.

“Just remind me where the warehouse is. I can be there soon. Also, there was this girl, but she—”

He was startled by a sudden tap on the glass from Kara. She was holding a compact leather carrier and gesturing to the top of the building she’d descended from as if to say she’d stored it up there. Pete nodded in response.

“Her name is Kara. She’s a hunter, like a vampire hunter. I think… I think she can help me.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete and Kara reach the warehouse.

Pete didn’t know what to make of Kara. She was extroverted and loquacious in the same way he used to be; all easy smiles and braying laughter to keep the listener enthralled and the conversation easy. She had all the right moves, looking into his eyes just long enough to draw him in, but not so long as to disturb him. Repeating his name with every other sentence to make him feel as though the attention would always squarely be on him so he wouldn’t ask her about herself. She even handed him a handkerchief from her backpack when she noticed his discomfort with her smell, smiling apologetically.

The song and dance made him uncomfortable not just because she was a vampire hunter, but also because it was so familiar. With everyone he’d ever met, regardless of how close they’d become, Pete would play the same game, taking on the part of the tantalizing, enticing enigma. Did he find her transparent because she was laying it on too thick or because he knew all the tricks? He wondered if he used to be this obvious when chatting up new people, and if they could see the same sadness in his eyes he saw in Kara’s. 

She suddenly nudged him impatiently, expression curious. He shook himself out of his stupor, stumbling slightly, but she didn’t miss a step. Patrick’s directions were clear enough that even a newcomer like Kara understood them.

“Are you going to answer my question?” She tilted her head in a coy kind of way, pursing her lips, and Pete realized he was staring too intently. He just shook his head in confusion, causing her to repeat exasperatedly, “Who are these guys again?”

“Some dudes I’m in a band with,” he replied, voice muffled from the handkerchief. “They’re all really cool and accepting…usually.”

Kara smirked at this, “Being the ‘accepting dudes’ you say they are—do you think they’ll want to learn too?”

He hadn’t considered that. Knowing his bandmates, they’d… What would they do? They sure weren’t cowards or anything, but he imagined fighting vampires required more than courage. He wasn’t even sure he wanted them to learn to fight. The thought of his best friends in danger made him feel sick to his stomach.

Seeming to take his silence as a response, Kara quirked an eyebrow and nodded. She looked as though she was annoyed for a moment before brightening just as quickly.

“Well, it’d be their decision, wouldn’t it?”

Pete nodded at this quickly, but the subject of his friends immediately put him on edge. How would they react to the fact that he was a vampire? Patrick seemed pretty calm about it on the phone earlier, but the pessimist in Pete attributed that calm to surprise that their bassist was even alive.

Well, kind of alive.

In truth, being a vampire wasn’t like the stories he’d read when he was younger. Of course there was the smelling humans thing, but the only scent he could definitively detect was Kara’s. Any others were just in the general, unidentifiable background. The same went for hearing; he’d always thought it’d be like bat ears or something, but was basically like living with hearing aids all the way turned up. The tiniest pin drop wasn’t annoying, but still noticeable.

The thing that really felt different was his sight. It was like he’d upgraded to HD. Looking at Kara as she walked ahead of him (he wondered if he always slowed down when deep in thought), he saw every strand of her hair, every pore on the back of her neck, the minute strand of cotton freeing itself from her shirt. But at the same time the big picture was incredibly clear. The normally average streets of Chicago looked especially grubby now.

Would any other changes be so…mundane?

“A lot of the big changes for vampires come at about a year after they’re turned.”

Pete supposed he’d spoken out loud. He moved to catch up with Kara. By this point, they’d reached a shadier point in the streets and the warehouse was visible ahead, the head of a street lined with vacant or condemned lots. That was new.

“Why doesn’t it happen all at once?”

Kara hummed. “Well, changing is more gradual than it seems, I guess. Your bloodlust will get worse before it gets better, and you haven’t really reached your peak physical ability yet. Not to mention that you won’t even be awake half the time.”

“W-What?”

They’d approached the door of the warehouse, finally, and Kara turned toward him, knocking at the same time.

“You’ll be able to stay on a 24-hour schedule easily a few months from now. But for the moment, when dawn hits, your body will shut down.”

She said it so matter-of-factly, like she wasn’t talking about him passing the fuck out on a daily basis beyond his control. Maybe this disturbing fact was par for the course for her, but he still had so much to get used to—

The door opened slowly, revealing a face Pete was grateful to see: Joe didn’t look like he’d changed that much, so Pete couldn’t have been trapped for too long. He still had those bushy brown curls that coiled and twisted every which way, a perfect representation of his erratic personality. A personality that often conflicted with the calmness always present in those deep blue eyes, which were now set on Pete like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Pete didn’t know who moved first, he just knew that his arms were wrapping around Joe’s lean torso and Joe’s arms were snaked around his, and Joe placing his face in the crook of his neck, breathing shallowly like he wasn’t breathing before. At close proximity, Pete got a whiff of Joe, subdued and sweet, and he became thankful for the handkerchief. But if Joe cared about the danger of getting near a vampire’s mouth, he wasn’t showing it.

“Joe, is it—”

The door opened wider, and Patrick appeared, ruffling his strawberry hair and putting a fedora over it. Pete caught his eye over Joe’s shoulder, and the human visibly stiffened. Pete was only able to open his mouth before Patrick lunged forward, enveloping the two others in a bear hug.

At that moment, Pete didn’t care that the scents of friends (and he couldn’t tell if Patrick actually smelled sweeter than Joe or if he just smelled stronger) were intermingling so closely to his nose. He didn’t care that his throat was dry as a bone or that his mouth was salivating. He could control himself just a bit longer, if it meant that he could stay in this embrace.

Kara cleared her throat awkwardly. The trio released one another sheepishly, still smiling. Pete felt like his grin could light up a city as he gestured to her.

“This is Kara. She’s the hunter I told you about.”

Continuing the trend of being unsettling as shit, Kara made no indication that she’d ever experienced or perhaps just didn’t care for normal introductions. Instead, she bluntly asked,

“So are you guys at all shocked that your friend is a vampire?”

Patrick simply blinked, bewildered. Pete couldn’t help but shoot her a sidelong glare; this girl didn’t know him for twenty minutes and didn’t know his friends for more than five, and yet she felt entitled to question them? Granted, it was a fair question, but he was starting to miss the overly-familiar charming routine she had going before.

“He’s our friend,” Joe replied as though it were obvious.

“He is your friend,” she repeated. She made the very concept sound alien and bizarre. Pete started to wonder if he’d like her as much as he did before they’d arrived. “But he’s also a vampire.”

Joe seemed, in his very Joe way, not as annoyed as Pete or as dumbfounded as Patrick. He just gave her a half smirk that was somewhat sad. Pete decided he definitely didn’t like this look on his friend.

“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” he shrugged. “He’s been our friend. Nothing’s changed.”

Pete felt a great affection swell up in his chest at the words. He didn’t care what anyone said; the best feeling in the world wasn’t belonging, it was feeling Not Alone. He moved to step over the threshold of the door to hug his friend, but felt himself barred from entry by some invisible force.

Patrick’s eyes widened, but his face softened with a look from Kara. Her face had yet again changed from the blank stare she was giving Joe to that charismatic grin. It seemed to be working its curative powers on the redhead.

“Doesn’t Pete live here with you guys?” She looked sly, and Pete struggled to see the joke.

“I guess you both live here now,” Patrick responded curiously.

She nodded and gestured with a hand as if to tell Pete to try going in again. Clearly, she knew something he didn’t. Well, obviously she knew a lot of things he didn’t. But this was something she seemed to expect him to know.

Ignoring the headache he was giving himself, Pete jumped toward the threshold, expecting to feel that invisible forcefield again. Instead, he collided into an unsuspecting Joe, bowling him over.

“Lesson number one,” Kara said triumphantly, stepping over the threshold herself, “a vampire must be invited into a place of residence their first time visiting. Unless, of course, it’s their place of residence. Where can I sleep?”

An impressed Patrick led her up the staircase that was conveniently by the doorway, leaving Pete to help Joe up. A thought occurred to Pete.

“Hey, where’s Andy?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still pretty stoked about this story. So stoked, in fact, that I'm going to take a chance and ask around for a beta. If I had one, I'd probably be able to get stuff out faster (having someone to remind me to stop being lazy would work wonders) and I'd totally be up for a mutual kind of thing. So yeah, if you'd like to beta, hit me up. As it is, next chapter hopefully later this month at the latest.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for the lateness. I had a personal thing Sunday and Monday that...really sucked, but I'm back now and sooper excited for a fun rewrite.


End file.
